man of Athens who professed to be a "philosopher," and affirmed that
everything we did was to be referred to pleasure. When he told this to
Manius Curius and Publius Decius, they used to remark that they wished
that the Samnites and Pyrrhus himself would hold the same opinion. It
would be much easier to conquer them, if they had once given themselves
over to sensual indulgences. Manius Curius had been intimate with
P. Decius, who four years before the former's consulship had devoted
himself to death for the Republic. Both Fabricius and Coruncanius knew
him also, and from the experience of their own lives, as well as from
the action of P. Decius, they were of opinion that there did exist
something intrinsically noble and great, which was sought for its own
sake, and at which all the best men aimed, to the contempt and neglect
of pleasure. Why then do I spend so many words on the subject of
pleasure? Why, because, far from being a charge against old age, that it
does not much feel the want of any pleasures, it is its highest praise.

But, you will say, it is deprived of the pleasures of the table, the
heaped up board, the rapid passing of the wine-cup. Well, then, it is
also free from headache, disordered digestion, broken sleep. But if we
must grant pleasure something, since we do not find it easy to resist
its charms,--for Plato, with happy inspiration, calls pleasure "vice's
bait," because of course men are caught by it as fish by a hook,--yet,
although old age has to abstain from extravagant banquets, it is still
capable of enjoying modest festivities. As a boy I often used to see
Gaius Duilius the son of Marcus, then an old mali, returning from
a dinner-party. He thoroughly enjoyed the frequent use of torch and
flute-player, distinctions which he had assumed though unprecedented in
the case of a private person. It was the privilege of his glory. But why
mention others? I will come back to my own case. To begin with, I have
always remained a member of a "club"--clubs, you know, were established
in my quaestorship on the reception of the Magna Mater from Ida. So I
used to dine at their feast with the members of my club--on the whole
with moderation, though there was a certain warmth of temperament
natural to my time of life; but as that advances there is a daily
decrease of all excitement. Nor was I, in fact, ever wont to measure
my enjoyment even of these banquets by the physical pleasures they gave
more than by the g